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Month: April 2016

Address why having some knowledge of graphic design concepts are helpful in creating social media content.

Knowing the concepts of graphic design and how to manipulate visual elements to create attractive graphics is a surefire way to make your designs stand out. Whether it’s facebook, twitter, company websites – studies show that users engage more when there are images. Infographics combine pictures, numbers, words, and colors to articulate information better or to get their message across.

Graphic design plays an essential role in content marketing today. It’s highly unlikely you can run a successful business today, without using graphics to articulate your brand. Logos, banners, flyers, e-newsletters, Facebook posts – it’s everywhere. Ensuring you’re using best practices in graphic design means appealing, impressive, engaging content and an outstanding representation of your brand.

Define and explain at least three concepts in graphic design & why the concept is helpful to know.

Color – Elements like hue, shade, tint, contrast, saturation make up the variable qualities of a color. Colors incite emotion. People don’t often paint rooms solid RED, BLUE or BLACK for a reason. We usually expect our living spaces to incite feelings of tranquility, like white and lighter tones of pastel colors.

Red = Passion and romance

Navy = conservative, authority and trust.

Take advantage of color conventions to make sure you’re sending the right messages/emotions to your audience.

Shapes – Shapes have been around since the dawn of humanity – in our drawings, inventions and the world around us. Like colors, shapes communicate qualities that humans interpret subconsciously. Feelings of trust and security, tenseness and harmony. Utilizing shapes tied the message you want to get across will result in interest and curiosity from your audience.

Line – A line is a point from one end to another. Lines can emphasize a focus point, or lead the eyes another direction. Underlines can be used to draw attention to specific words. Lines combined with shapes can create unique, appealing content and a sense of harmony. Lines are an easy way to add life to marketing content for social media posts.

HTML is a coding language used to program webpages and applications. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML can be identified as combinations of letters, numbers and symbols carefully formulated to dictate specific outcomes. Right-clicking on any webpage and selecting “view source” will reveal the HTML source responsible for the websites components.

HTML to the internet is like The English language to the United States of America. HTML code is responsible for the UX and UI of what you see when you browse the internet. Coding is the practice used by programmers to which fuel innovation in the world of cyberspace.

While completing this module, I realized I’d been HTML coding since I was twelve years old. Before Facebook was the king of social, I had accounts on two popular social network/blog sites at the time – Myspace and Xanga. If you were part of this generation, you’d know that popularity contests were settled by who had the coolest layout. The way to change your layout was to copy the HTML layout code and paste into your backend profile editor.

Pretty soon I was playing around with the HTML, adjusting the code to change font sizes, colors, resize pictures, and learned basic tags, etc. If someone had a feature I liked on their Myspace or Xanga profile; I’d recall saying something like… “HeY, YuR RoTaTiNG BaNNeR oN YuR PRoFile.. SoOoOOO CooL! WhaT CoDe DiD Yu YouZ? PAycE OuT” (this was the language of the Xanga generation) and I’d use mix and match codes to get the layout I liked.

HTML can be helpful in creating social media content in a team environment. Understanding basic HTML means better communication with the web programmer on the team. Knowing HTML also allows me to make basic adjustments to websites, images and WordPress. Since this assignment I’ve been learning HTML basics through tutorial videos and practicing coding. I’m now convinced I want to invest some time to master a few code languages. Coding is in high-demand and is a great opportunity for me to challenge myself. Coding teaches critical thinking, data analysis – a fantastic skill to add to my digital arsenal.

Week 2 assignment – Edit an article from the web. – Excerpted from the NEW YORK Times.

NO decision we make as Americans more dramatically affects the direction of our country than our choice for president. He or she is more than the manager of the executive branch, commander in chief or appointer of judges. The president reflects, but also helps define, our national values, priorities, and direction.

Recognizes that to accomplish this; we must keep the vast bulk of the world’s fossil fuels in the ground.

Been unflinching in taking on predatory lending, as well as the threats to our economy from high-risk strategies at our biggest banks.

Bernie is a determined leader in taking on the concentration of campaign cash from the mega-wealthy that is corrupting the vision of opportunity embedded in our Constitution.

His leadership on these issues and his willingness to fearlessly stand up to the powers that be have galvanized a grass-roots movement. People know that we don’t just need better policies, we need a wholesale rethinking of how our economy and our politics work, and for whom they work.

Special interests, aided by their political and judicial allies, have exercised an ever-tighter grip on our political system, from the rise of unlimited, secret campaign spending to a voter suppression movement.

We need urgency. We need big ideas. We need to rethink the status quo.

The first three words of the Constitution, in bold script, are “We the People.” The American story is a journey of continuous striving to realize more fully our founding principles of hope and opportunity for all.

It is time to recommit ourselves to that vision of a country that measures our nation’s success not at the boardroom table, but at kitchen tables across America. Bernie Sanders stands for that America, and so I stand with Bernie Sanders for president.

1. “Examine differences between writing for print and writing for the web and produce effective and appropriate marketing content for both mediums.”

My #1 priority is to improve my writing skills. Throughout this program, I’ve come to terms with the ultimate power of persuasive writing. Customers are doing plenty of research about businesses before choosing their services or products. Poor writing can dissuade potential clients and portray a lack of credibility; which can be bad news for small businesses who don’t have experience with writing for the web. I’m interested in learning how to write in various tones and personalities to match their audience. Powerful writing is a dark force in the hands of fascist dictators or annoying advertisers, but a super power for the ones who serve the people.

2. “Research and discuss knowledge, skills and abilities required for professional positions in the fields of social media content and digital content creation.”

Within the next five years, I see myself as this Rockstar CMO of an organization that benefits those whom it serves. In crafting my master plan towards this vision, I find myself working backward. I study the top CMO’s of today and look into top marketing skills and abilities for 2016. Identifying the most sought after skills gives me a framework for these next few years. I’ll develop a plan and devote time every day to perfecting these skills. I love how this is one of the outcomes. It takes in-depth research and discussions for someone like myself to effectively plan this sort of roadmap.

3. “Evaluate and propose strategies for delivering effective marketing messages and business content for the web and social media channels.”

We’ve covered so many different strategies throughout this program; My first concern was how in the heck am I going to retain all of this information? But what it’s done so far is cultivated the “problem-solver” mentality inside of me. Asaph MacGyver. Putting myself in the shoes of actual brands gives me experience in content creation for multiple platforms. The diverse-rich world of business pushes me to think outside the box and pull lessons from the past, with the customer in mind. The marketing message must match the core values of the brand if they want to resonate with the people. The audience determines what channels, post frequency, tools and content. Every factor correlates with the other, and this process calls for critical thinking, intensive research, and decisiveness when proposing strategies.